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Results tagged ‘ #NatsCaveCrasher ’

After 48 hours of furious voting, we are pleased to announce our Grand Prize Winner of the #NatsCaveCrasher Instagram Contest is @batesandy. Andy and a lucky +1 of his choosing will be headed to New York next week to crash the MLB Fan Cave and watch the Nationals take on the Mets at Citi Field. Our Runner-Up, @nickpalastro, will get four PNC Diamond Lounge seats for a 2014 Nationals game.

But before we go any further, we’d like to acknowledge how overwhelming this vote was. We’ve held contests before through various social networks, but nothing has generated the level of response as this contest. While there were passionate voices on different sides of the fandom debate, we felt it was appropriate to let those voices be heard. You voted for whose photos you believed were best, but also who you thought deserved to represent the Nationals. We can’t argue with that.

We know that some of you had issues with being able to vote, which we can attribute to the overwhelming response we received. Here were the final totals:

As you can see, nearly 200,000 votes were cast in the 48-hour block, or almost 70 per minute on average. You have shown once again your passion as a fan base, and we appreciate your continued support. Go Nats!

It was a tough task, but we’ve whittled down our field of over 500 entries in our #NatsCaveCrasher Instagram Contest to five deserving finalists. Now, they’ll go head-to-head Saturday at Nationals Park, putting their photography skills to the test for a chance to win that all-expenses-paid trip for two to New York City.

Each finalist will receive a shot sheet of things to photograph and upload to Instagram during Saturday’s game against the Mets and the NatsLive Free Postgame Concert featuring Gavin DeGraw. We’ll then compile each finalist’s portfolio into a gallery here on Curly W Live, where fans will have 48 hours to vote for their favorite. The grand-prize winner will be headed to see the Nationals play the Mets and visit the MLB Fan Cave on September 10-11, while our runner-up will win four PNC Diamond Lounge tickets to a future Nationals game.

Before we host our finalists, though, let’s take a look at what makes these Nats fans worthy of a chance to crash the Cave.

Meet the Finalists:

Andy B.

@batesandy

Hometown: Chevy Chase, Md.

Age: 26

After moving to the DMV in October 2009, Andy latched onto the Nationals as buzz began generating around Stephen Strasburg’s 2010 debut. That 14-strikeout performance was enough to hook this Nats fan for life. Though his favorite player is Bryce Harper, Andy also claims “utmost respect for Jayson Werth’s beard,” untucks his shirt after every Rafael Soriano save and does his best to hit the high notes during A-ha’s “Take On Me” during the seventh-inning stretch.

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Jodie C.

@jodieraecurtis

Hometown: Washington, D.C.

Age: 30

Jodie moved to Washington around the same time baseball did in 2005. Having never had a team to root for growing up in Kentucky, she immediately called the Nats her own. Torn between Bryce Harper and Ian Desmond for who tops the list of her favorite Nationals, Jodie ranks Jayson Werth’s walk-off homer in Game 4 of the 2012 NLDS as “one of the best sports moments I’ve ever witnessed in person…I felt like Washington became a baseball town that October night,” she said.

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SueAnn C.

@natsfan224

Hometown: Oxon Hill, Md.

Age: 31

Free tickets from participating in a blood drive brought SueAnn to her first Nationals game in 2009. The rest is history has her love of baseball and the Nats has grown exponentially since. She counts the Nationals division clinch last year among her favorite memories and was in the crowd when Michael Morse brought a champagne shower to the left-field stands.

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Nick P.

@nickpalastro

Hometown: Springfield, Va.

Age: 22

Nick’s destiny as a Nats fan was cemented the last time Washington hosted a Major League ball club. His dad was a Senators fan, having attended the last game at RFK Stadium on September 30, 1971 and the Nationals’ first exhibition game on April 3, 2005. Though Nick braved Philadelphia while attending college at Temple University, he’s undaunted in his Natitude — even outfitting the city’s Rocky Balboa statue with a Jayson Werth jersey.

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Jonathan B.

@jonnyb1221

Hometown: Fredericksburg, Va.

Age: 27

Jonathan had never been to a Major League Baseball game before the U.S. Navy stationed him at Washington Navy Yard in 2011. A whim brought him and his wife to Nationals Park for the first time that year, sparking their now-mutual love of baseball and the Nationals. Now, their nightly ritual involves switching on the Nats game, but nothing compares to being in attendance for Jayson Werth’s walk-off in the playoffs. “I will never forget the vibe in the stadium at that moment,” Jonathan said.

As a Major League Baseball team in one of the country’s most progressive technological markets, we’re always looking for new and creative ways to use the expanding world of social media to connect with our fans. In that spirit, we are hosting our first-ever Instagram-based event, which is the first of its kind in all of Major League Baseball.

We’re partnering with the gracious folks at the MLB Fan Cave in New York to present the #NatsCaveCrasher contest. Simply tag your best Nationals Instagram photos with the hashtag #NatsCaveCrasher for your chance to win pregame field passes, access to the Nats Fan Cave and field passes for yourself and a friend to the Free NatsLive Postgame Concert featuring Gavin DeGraw on Saturday, August 31 as the Nationals play the Mets.

As a finalist, you will be tasked with compiling a portfolio of photos from the evening, which will be displayed right here on Curly W Live and voted on by your fellow fans. Whoever receives the most votes will win an all-expenses paid trip for two to New York City September 9-10 to visit the MLB Fan Cave and see the Nationals take on the Mets at Citi Field.

Not bad, right?

We’ll be picking finalists on a rolling basis between now and August 21, so be sure to keep tagging photos for your chance to be chosen. We’ll announce one finalist on each of the five following dates:

Monday, August 12

Wednesday, August 14

Friday, August 16

Monday, August 19

Wednesday, August 21

For official rules and a gallery of entries, visit nationals.com/natscavecrasher today. Make sure you’re following @Nationals on Instagram and send in your submissions. Maybe you can crash both the Nats Fan Cave and the MLB Fan Cave in New York City.

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